Due to overwhelming request, I’ve created a store section for made-to-order pieces from my patterns. I’m still stocking it with designs and descriptions, but the gist is this: I can make you anything in my tutorials section to your size specifications. In the cases of the flat peyote bands, there are nooptional color choices. What you see is what you get. In the case of some of the more advanced tutorials, you can pick your color scheme.

If the item is over $100, you can also opt to put a deposit on it. Just let me know which piece you’d like me to make. I’ll create a special listing for you once the beads come in. The balance is due when the piece is completed.

Murrini with Hannah Rosner
At Glass Axis. Columbus, OHhttp://www.glassaxis.org
This traditional Venetian technique gets its name from the Italian for ‘thousand flowers’. Molds and cane are used to pull sticks of glass, which when cut into slices, reveal beautiful floral designs. This torchworking class will cover several types of murrini pulls while focusing on strengthening basic skills. Students will learn to create a variety of murrini and incorporate it into glass beads. Saturday & Sunday, 10 am to 3 pm
Jan. 7 & 8

More details…
We’ll begin by using some mass producedmurrine on beads, just so you can mess some up while learning to apply them.

Then, we’ll make really simple stuff like bullseyes.
Then we’ll move onto a valentine’s day heart

And then a star (this one has reactive stuff around it)

And then a simple flower
And then a feather
And then probably some cute paw prints

DIY! Project Accessory Inspired Necklace
Well, I think its time for another free tutorial for me. This one was inspired from Christina’s Rope & Chandelier Part Necklace on Project Accessory, which I’ve been sucked into and probably will now watch religiously. I’m sure there’s someone to blame for this besides my wanting to avoid work.

Now, before we get into this, let me just say that I believe this design belongs to her. I think the design is fabulous, although its more of a summer thing than a winter thing. I’m not planning on making money off the tutorial or anything – its a straightforward braiding design that she has added drops to and a leather strap across the bottom to hold the weight.

Materials needed:
*Hemp, 1-2mm wide
*Leather Cord, about 2mm
*Optional (I had it leftover from my macrame tutorials): C-lon
*Optional (if you are using the C-lon): Needle with large enough eye to thread with C-lon
*Optional (if you are using C-lon): Thread Burner
*Glue – I like .527 Watch Glue OR E6000.
*Clear tape
*2 Ribbon Crimp Ends, available from your local bead store or firemountaingems.com. About 13mm should be fine. There may be a bulk buy going on!
*Headpins, available from your local bead store or firemountaingems.com. Get the largest/thickest ones you can. There may be a bulk buy going on!
*Jump Rings, available from your local bead store or firemountaingems.com. Get about 8-12mm ones. There may be a bulk buy going on!
*Jump Rings (1 or 2). You might need an extra large jump ring or two for your pendant.
*Optional: Extender Chain (you’ll see this in my photos below)
*1 Large Off-Mandrel Pendant (overview on how to make this below).
*Even number of disk shaped beads (I used a 23mm press that I purchased off Ebay. I have no idea who the maker is, but I luuuuv it. I recommend one of Catt’s presses for this, though, which you can purchase here: http://www.cattwalk.com/lentilsandca…raduatedLentil)
*Optional: Matching beadies

Part 1 – Assembling and Making the Beads

Okay, first, lets get through that off-mandrel pendant.
Taken DIRECTLY off of my friend Val’s description (I think she’ll be okay with this):
* Make desired design at end of 6-14mm rod.
I used boro, but you don’t have to. It was something like double amber purple over white over clear with clear swirls. I’m not 100% sure of the colors since I don’t mark my rods religiously.
* Squish.
* Heat tungsten until glowing – push through glass to make hole – (make sure it is warm enough to receive it. but a little stiff too).
I use a Peter’s Tweezers for this step since I suck at using a tungsten. I’d love to use Handy Andy’s tweezers, but haven’t yet purchased any.
* Attach cold seal to one end, and melt off “blob” from other of rod.
I pointed my end while I melted it off…
* Decorate and embellish ’til your heart is content.
* Flame polish and anneal – oh, and have fun!

Scared of making something off mandrel? C’mon! Try it! Its fun!
Alrighty, you could always make a big bead for the center front – it doesn’t HAVETA be off mandrel.
Great! Make some disk beads to match. I made 6, and then some matching donut shaped ones.
While the pendant and the disk beads anneal, we can go ahead and make the necklace part.

Part 2 – The Weight Bearing part of the Necklace

Cut 9 pieces of the hemp 2 1/2 feet long each.
You’ll be braiding them using a regular three-strand braid, but the trick is that you’ll be dealing with three strands as a single piece, just to give it some bulk. You want to keep them all next to each other, not bunching up, though, so your final braided ribbon stays flat.

Braid them up to 1 1/2″ less than you want your final piece to be – the ribbon ends and the clasp will add that extra length, plus you can go in and add an extender chain.

Don’t know how long you should make it?
Choker necklaces sit high on the neck.
Wikipedia tells me that they are generally 14-16 inches long.
HOWEVER, I need a 12 inch choker and a good friend on mine uses an 18″ one. See where the idea of an extender chain might be useful?

Don’t know how to braid? No problem – there is an excellent tutorial here:

Got your braid done? Awesome.
The ribbon crimp is really easy to use – you just have to make sure all your pieces fit into it.
Wrap a piece of tape around where you want to cut your braid at start and end. Make sure its on there really tight!

Cut a piece of leather to the EXACTLY the same size as the finished braid.

If you’d like to stitch it onto the bottom of the braid a bit, this will make it a little stronger. I’ve used C-lon here and knotted the ends on the back of the piece. I use a little bit of glue or a thread burner on my knot since C-lon tends to be springy and the knots come undone.

Use another piece of tape to attach the leather to the bottom of the hemp braid.

Cut the tape in half and glue the HECK out of the ends.

Part 3 – The Clasp

Open up your ribbon crimp a bit, add a bit of glue in there, and then smash it around the outside of the hemp/leather/tape contraption.

Add jump rings, your optional extender chain, and a clasp. I added beads to the end of my extender chain since I had extras.

Part 4 – Attaching the Beads/Drops

Okay, your beads and pendant are annealed and cooled and all the bead separator is cleaned out of there, right? We’re going to work on the drops first. I made them all first, but you can make them as you work (see directions below).

Attach the pendant to the center front leather using the extra large jump ring. I added a couple of extra jump rings because I wanted my pendant to sit lower than my side beads.

Put the disk beads onto the headpins. Because my beads had larger holes, I had to add a smaller bead underneath. I also used a loop headpin (an eyepin) so I could add little copper drops I found in my stash. If you have matching beads, you can load them on top. Make a loop at the top of the headpin. If you know how to wire wrap, this will make it stronger.

This is the second tutorial I’ve submitted based on Project Accessory. I was all set to LOVE this show, but as it turns out it hasn’t been nearly as inspirational as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I love this bracelet.

Materials Needed:
*1 or more 24″ plastic zipper (I’ve used two for this sample)
*Ultrasuede in one or more colors (I’ve used two colors here – a red for the front and a blue for the lining)
*Lacy’s Stiff Stuff or thick interfacing. Fusible is great!
*Clasp: I’ve used a purse clasp. I have a number of them for sale if you want to PM me, or you might be able to fnd them on Etsy.
*Optional: Lampwork Glass Disk Beads. Mine are boro and if you PM me I can make some for you
*Optional: Lampwork glass leftover wavy bead from my other free tutorial projects. Tutorial available here:http://lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99725
*Optional: Tim Holtz Steampunk Cogs
*Optional: Leftover Swarovski crystals and seed beads from other projects
*Needles
*Thread – regular for the base part of the bracelet and beading thread for adding beads – I recommend Fireline.
*Small, sharp scissors
*Glue – I recommend e6000, which is super stinky but works great because it remains flexible when dry

Cut a 2″ x 8.5″ (or whatever size will fit you – remember, because this is big you don’t want it to be too snug) rectangle from both the interfacing (Lacy’s stiff stuff) and the front color of your ultrasuede. If its fusible, get out that old iron and stick ’em together! Otherwise, open up that glue. If you do glue them, give it all time to dry!

Open up the zipper(s). Cut off the end pieces and the pull. You’ll end up with two working pieces per zipper. You might want to keep that pull for a decorative element on your bracelet, but I just tossed mine.

Start in the center and curl up your zipper. Tack it on. In the case of mine, I had two zippers so had a two-tone look that I rather enjoyed. One zipper that was longer than the other, so I ended up separating the two of them and really just playing with the curls. Don’t tack them down all the way – you want a sort of 3d effect here! remember to hide the cut ends of your zipper underneath the curls and tack them down especially well.

Here’s half of the bracelet:

And here’s all of the zipper pieces tacked down:

My ginormous clasp is more of a fashion statement than the rest of the zipper. I needed some extra insurance on it, so I knew I had to really sew it down and didn’t want those stitches showing on the inside of the bracelet, so I put it on next so I could later cover the interior stitches with the lining. Generally, I wouldn’t put the clasp on until the end.

Optional: I decided that the rectagular shape was super boring, so I trimmed it to match the freeform curliques of the zipper better.

At this point, you could well slap a lining on this and call it done!
But…
I decided it needed some beads, and I happen to have a few hanging around my house, so I grabbed some Tim Holtz cogs and sewed them on, and then grabbed some leftover boro disks I had hanging around and then started rummaging through my Swarovski crystals and sewed them on.
It was sorta a free-for-all around here.

First, here’s a photo of those disks
I blame Val for an obsessive couple of days in which I did nothing but make these.

And here’s a photo of the bracelet with the stuff all haphazardly sewn on.

You’re nearly done! The interior of your bracelet probably is a mess of knots and threads and stuff. That’s okay – you should have seen mine. Glue it onto the lining ultrasuede. I suggest sticking your bracelet to a larger piece of lining and waiting until the glue dries before trimming it. While you wait for it to dry, you have to figure out what to do with the edging. You have a couple of different options.

Option 2: Whip stitch the edges closed using a bead
You do it the same way as above, only add a seed bead as you are working. This looks great because it looks the same as the zipper edge.

Option 3: Use seed bead picot stitchPicot stitch is a great way to finish off the edge of bead embroidery so you don’t see the cut edge(s) of fabric. Picot also looks great in 15/0 beads.

Before Set Up for the 3-Bead Picot Stitch – thread on 3 beads (see diagram below). You will use three beads to set up the pattern just this time. The middle bead will sit up above the 2 side beads on either side. Let the beads fall to the bottom of thread and rest on the bracelet edge.
Move needle over one bead width and pass needle from the back, a whisper in from the edge and through to the front edge. Now, pass the needle up through the last bead from its bottom hole through bead to top.

From now on you will only thread on 2 beads each time you create a bead picot. You will simply thread on 2 beads and make another small stitch that is one bead width away, bringing needle through from back to front edge. Now bring needle up through the last bead and tug thread to set beads into position.

Are you ever in the middle of a huge pile of cored beads and you just are having a super off day? I’ve been hoarding my sterling, copper and brass rivets for a while now, figuring that at some point I’d finally figure out what to do with the perfectly fine metal pieces after I’d gone and broken the glass off them.

Cut at least 1 yard of fireline beading thread for this project. You really don’t want to start a new thread in the middle!

Using the 11/0 seed beads, do a strip of peyote stitch that goes around your little bead. Generally I start with 4 beads. Its really important that you start with an even number. Don’t kow peyote stitch? No problem! Its super easy, and there’s a great online tutorial here that actually uses 4 beads in the demo.

Below, my little peyote stitch strip…

Here’s the only place this gets a bit fussy. You need that strip to wrap around your core (or cylindrical bead) and not be too loose and not be too tight (otherwise the thread will rip out later). In addition, when it wraps around, you’ll be “zipping” it together to form an endless band. If you wrap it around your core and the beads don’t fit together like little teeth or a zipper, then you’ll either have to stitch one more row of peyote stitch or take one row out.

Below, you should see how I can “zip” that little piece together.

Okay, that photo sucks, and of course I already finished the project, so here’s another shot of my zipping together a piece of peyote stitch from a completely different project. But you should be able to see how those little sticky outy beads just fit in together and hopefully it’ll make sense. Hey, its a freebie! Gimme a break!

Alrighty, here’s another out of focus picture of the piece all tightened up. If you are using a regular cylindrical bead, you might want to put a little glue onto a toothpick and just get a little in there. With the channel from the rivet, I don’t have to worry about it falling off at all. As a matter of fact, I could just call this done here…

…but of course I have to add fringe to everything.
You’ll be adding the very simplest of all fringe here. You’ll add a bead, and then a bead I’ll refer to as a “stop” bead. Then, you’ll go back down through the larger bead and anchor the fringe onto the piece. I like using a 15/0 seed bead as a stop bead. My fringe beads will be pearls, and since I’m all about this project being a “using up leftovers” project, I’m also going to use a random mix of pearls.

Here’s the first pearl I’ve added.

And a couple more pearls. See the way the little 15/0 seed bead sits on top?

Here I’m finished with the first row around the bead and I’m adding a second row…

All in all, I added three rows of pearls around the bead before I decided it was nice and “full.”

Once you are finished, weave your needle through the beadwork until you are sure that it won’t come loose. Cut off the thread and use your thread burner, if you have one, to get rid of any thread ends. You’re done!